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Morning Take-Out

By Dealbook May 25, 2011 9:22 amMay 25, 2011 9:22 am

TOP STORIES

Yandex Debut Stirs More Talk of Tech Bubble | First LinkedIn’s stock more than doubled after its initial public offering. Then Yandex, known as Russia’s equivalent to Google, rose 55 percent in its debut. So is there a tech bubble 2.0 in the making?

The strong demand — fervor even — for technology offerings is once again fanning concerns about market froth. In recent weeks, a number of multibillion-dollar Internet companies like Yandex and LinkedIn have enjoyed robust first-day pops, drawing unfavorable comparisons to the ill-fated dot-com boom.

That idea may be put to the test soon: Zynga, the gaming giant that is another member of the social media elite, is preparing to file for an I.P.O. as soon as next month (or next week), according to All Things D and Bloomberg News.DEALBOOK | ALL THINGS D | BLOOMBERG NEWS

Treasury Gets Small Profit From Sale of A.I.G. Stock | The United States Treasury wrung a small profit on Tuesday from the first sale of its shares in the American International Group, a major step toward unwinding the government’s ownership resulting from a 2008 bailout.

The insurer raised at least $8.7 billion from the offering, which priced shares at $29 each. After the offering, the Treasury’s stake in the company fell to about 77 percent from 92 percent.

But the price set was barely above the Treasury’s break-even price of about $28.73.DealBook

Start-Ups Vie for Attention at the Venture Capital Table | The recent initial public offerings by LinkedIn and Yandex have grabbed the attention of investors, but small technology start-ups are expecting more than just scraps from the venture capital table. DealBook talked with executives of three small start-ups about their plans for raising capital.DealBook

Treasury Official Says Profit Wasn’t Aim of A.I.G. Sale | Tim Massad, a senior Treasury Department official, sought to temper expectations for A.I.G.’s stock offering by saying that the insurer’s bailout was never intended to make a profit.DealBook

DEAL NOTES

BlackRock Falters, but C.E.O.’s Pay Doesn’t | BlackRock’s stock fell 16 percent last year, after a very good 2009. But its chairman and chief executive, Laurence D. Fink, took home $23.8 million in 2010, topping Bloomberg’s ranking of top-paid financial executives.BLOOMBERG NEWS

Bodyguards of the Rich and Infamous | When figures like Bernard L. Madoff and Dominique Strauss-Kahn get in trouble with the law in New York, they often get assigned a detail from Stroz Friedberg, a company that watches them during house arrest.BLOOMBERG NEWS

High Unemployment a Legacy of Financial Crisis, Report Finds | Despite a broad economic recovery, stubbornly high unemployment remains the “most pressing legacy” of the financial crisis, according to a new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.NEW YORK TIMES

‘Greatest Trade Ever’ Author Points to Chinese Bubble | People these days are seeing bubbles everywhere. For Greg Zuckerman, China is likely to be the scene of the “next catastrophe,” because until hedge funds figure out how to short the nation’s surging economy directly, it will be without a natural check.TELEGRAPH

After Repaying Loans, Fiat Takes More of Chrysler | Fiat paid $1.3 billion to raise its stake in Chrysler to 46 percent on Tuesday after the American automaker announced it had repaid $7.6 billion in government loans, The New York Times reports.DealBook

GE Capital Unloads $5.2 Billion in Australian Loans | GE Capital said on Wednesday that it had agreed to sell mortgages worth about 5 billion Australian dollars ($5.2 billion) to Pepper Homeloans for an undisclosed sum, as high prices feed concern about a bubble in Australia’s housing market.DealBook

Total Extends Bid for Renewable Energy Company | The French oil giant Total’s $1.37 billion offer for a majority stake in the American solar firm SunPower was extended to June 14 from May 31.REUTERS | PRESS RELEASE

State Attorneys General Warn of Foreclosure Suits | Five of the biggest banks in the United States are looking at the possibility of a combined $17 billion worth of civil lawsuits over inappropriate foreclosure practices, unless a settlement is reached, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.WALL STREET JOURNAL

Subsidized Banks Inflated Credit Bubble, Study Says | Implicit government subsidies and a regulatory vacuum spurred banks during the mortgage boom to lend to borrowers who would never repay, a new study concludes, arguing that the affect of low interest rates was not the prime cause of the housing crisis.ECONOMIX | REPORT

Deutsche Bank Criticized Over Succession Plans | Deutsche Bank has come under fire from a pension fund adviser for not yet offering a definite successor to its current chief executive, Josef Ackermann, as well as for its pay structure.FINANCIAL TIMES

Big Players Enter Online Personal Banking | The nation’s largest lenders are facing a new frontier, as customers back away from checks and cash as a way of moving and spending money, and increasingly turn to the online realm. With that in mind, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase are set to start an online banking service on Wednesday to rival PayPal.WALL STREET JOURNAL

Private Equity Exits Hit Record $85 Billion in 2nd Quarter | European buyout firms have taken the lion’s share, selling 82 stakes valued at $57.9 billion this quarter, double the value of exits in the first quarter of the year, according to the data provider Preqin.TELEGRAPH | FINANCIAL NEWS

Trump Entertainment Looking to Buy Distressed Casinos | It seems Trump Entertainment Resorts took one thing away from the recent fire sale of its distressed Trump Marina casino in Atlantic City: It wants to be on the other side of those deals.ASSOCIATED PRESS

Blackstone Said to Weigh Bid for Mint Hotels | The Blackstone Group, which already owns the Hilton chain of hotels, is expected to be among those submitting offers this week for the European hotel chain Mint, which could fetch as much as £575 million, Sky News reported.FINANCIAL NEWS

Houston Pension Fund Sues Highland | Highland Capital Management is being sued by the Houston Municipal Employees Pension System, which is accusing the hedge fund’s co-founders of engaging in “dozens of self-interested transactions” that eventually led to the collapse of the Highland Crusader Fund. The suit also names JPMorgan Chase, which served as an administrator of the fund, as a defendant.BLOOMBERG NEWS | DOW JONES

Hedge Fund Accused of Spying Defends Itself | Ikos Asset Management, the fund accused of hiring spies to insinuate themselves into the private lives of former employees, defended its actions, describing them as “legitimate investigative efforts” that it deemed “necessary and appropriate.”BUSINESS INSIDER | FINANCIAL TIMES | PRESS RELEASE

For Glencore, a Tepid Debut in Hong Kong | After a muted start in London, Glencore did not seem to fare much better in Hong Kong, where the shares of the commodities trader fell as much as 3 percent in their first day of trading on Wednesday.REUTERS | WALL STREET JOURNAL

El Paso Corp. to Spin Off Business Unit | In a long-expected move, the natural gas pipeline giant El Paso Corporation announced it was spinning off its exploration and production business, pushing El Paso’s shares up 6.5 percent on Tuesday.

Other oil companies that have split into two companies, such as Williams and Marathon, have held on to their split gains, signaling general shareholder approval of the moves. Titans like Exxon Mobil would do well to pay attention, Reuters Breakingviews says.HOUSTON CHRONICLE | REUTERS BREAKINGVIEWS | PRESS RELEASE

Cloudary Files for I.P.O. | Cloudary, a unit of the Chinese Internet media company Shanda Interactive Entertainment, is looking to raise as much as $200 million in an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange.REUTERS | S.E.C. FILING

When It Comes to I.P.O.’s, Profit’s the Thing | Judging by the hugely successful market debuts of Yandex and LinkedIn, investors are focusing on potential revenue rather than profit. They do so at their own peril, Reuters Breakingviews warns.REUTERS BREAKINGVIEWS

San Francisco Start-Ups Get a Break | After a lobbying campaign from start-ups like Zynga and Yelp, San Francisco has approved a tax break that could save millions of dollars for the city’s technology companies, in particular those looking to go public.BITS

Google’s Clean Energy Investments Hit $400 Million | Google has injected $55 million into a wind energy farm in the Mojave Desert, employing “an innovative financial structure” for the deal that the company says it hopes will encourage other investors to sign on.VENTUREBEAT | PRESS RELEASE

G.O.P. Lawmakers Vote to Delay Derivatives Rules | A divided House panel approved a bill that would freeze crucial regulations stemming from the Dodd-Frank Act until September 2012, more than two years after the law was enacted.DealBook

S.E.C. Readies New Scheme for Whistle-Blowers | The agency is set to vote on Wednesday on a rule required in last year’s financial overhaul: whistle-blowers who provide new and actionable information leading to $1 million or more in penalties will be rewarded financially.ASSOCIATED PRESS

Watchdog Faults S.E.C. Leases | The securities regulator leased more than half a billion dollars’ worth of offices last year that did not suit its needs, according to the agency watchdog, which said the move was based on a “deeply flawed and unsound analysis” of what it required.NEW YORK TIMES | S.E.C. REPORT

Tax Preparer in Bankruptcy | One of the largest tax preparers in America has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Jackson Hewitt Tax Service failed to obtain financing for the tax-refund loans it offered and breached it covenants.REUTERS

London Must Justify Its Existence to European Union | The City of London has a fight on its hands. David Lidington, Britain’s minister for Europe, is to make a speech on Wednesday that the financial hub must make the case as to why it is necessary to the Continent as a whole, if it is to influence the effect of new European Union banking regulations.FINANCIAL TIMES

Jury Convicts 4 of Mail Fraud in Tax Shelter Trial | The former chief of BDO Seidman, two prominent lawyers and a former Deutsche Bank broker were convicted of fraud on Tuesday linked to a multibillion-dollar tax shelter scheme.ASSOCIATED PRESS